HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday.  Since this year has been so upside-down and sideways with moving and getting the house ready to sell (plus my Halloween kitties are all in Santa Fe), I am posting some classic photos of the cats to celebrate this year.

Stella as Vampira Bella.

Edgar Poe as Jack Nicholson in "The Shining"  Heeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrreeeeee's Edgar

Remy as CATZILLA, Destroyer of Boxes

Gomez as a Gargoyle

And me....well I've been watching "The Walking Dead" too much lately............

Blogger's Quilt Festival: Fall 2013

I'll just jump back into blogging again with my entry for the super funtabulous Blogger's Quilt Festival.














I am so happy that I have a quilt that I actually finished during this busier-than-usual year and even happier that it was a gift for my cutemous new baby nephew Cameron, who was born on February 2nd.

The pattern is "Alphablocks" by American Jane and the fabrics are Moda Bella solids and a mix of older American Jane lines. I machine appliquéd and machine quilted it myself.  Here is the original post from February.


I am entering this in the baby quilt section of the contest.  You can check it out there along with lots of other great quilts.

Dusting Off the Ol' Blog.....

Hello!!!!  How is everyone in blogland?  I've been incommunicado for 2 months.  Can you believe it?  I missed all of you and I miss reading all the blog posts and everything else that is going on. It has been a whirlwind of busy and too-much-to-do along with work and trips to Santa Fe and 50-11 billion other things.  Let's do a really quick catch up and then I'll try to get back into blogging again.  I also hope to get back to commenting and (fingers crossed) sewing again soon. I also need to respond to 700 emails at least so if you haven't heard from me--I'll be getting to that too.

Warning: there has been no sewing for me these past few months, although I did *enjoy* packing up my sewing room (not) and 50-11 million UFOs (double not).

Another warning:  LOOOOOONG POST follows.

OK. Ready. Set. Go. Two months in a flash-----------

September:  
Week of Sept. 6th 

S. and I drove to Santa Fe to find a rental house in his car packed to the roof with stuff.  I fell in love with Santa Fe.  I will dwell more on Santa Fe in another post.

Palace of the Governors

Downtown buildings

Our historic Route 66 hotel and homebase while searching for a place to live

After an exhausting (and at times discouraging) search for a place that would accept four cats (apparently this is an unacceptable number of cats even though they are the four cutest, most well-behaved, sweetest cats on the face of the Earth), we finally found a little adobe house and it was perfect! Wonderful neighborhood, S. can walk to work, we can walk everywhere, and it is just the cutest little house ever.

After finding a house and getting S. settled, we had some free time so we got married at the magistrate courthouse on Thursday, September 12.  Yes, we did.  We had a wonderful little civil ceremony, S. made dinner, and I bought a cake.  It was exactly what we wanted and we were so happy to get married and start our new life in our new hometown.

I came back to Atlanta on Saturday, Sept. 14, leaving S. to start work in Santa Fe.

Rest of September
Packing, packing, packing, and more packing.  Also repainting all the rooms in my house and getting house ready to sell.

Gomez was in charge of packing quilts.  

October:
More work on house. My parents came down from Michigan (Dad for 2 1/2 weeks and Mom for a week) to help.  I owe them forever for the amount of work they did and can't thank them enough.  Also, the cats loved having more people to spoil them. I know Stella misses my mom already.

We needed to get most of our furniture and stuff (including all the sewing stuff) moved to Santa Fe and leave some items to "stage" the house for sale so S. flew back from NM on October 12th to load up and drive the moving truck.  We also needed to get the cats moved so I rented a car to chauffeur them for the 20 hour drive.

Monday, October 14: Moving day.

I was prepared as one could be faced with driving 1,400 miles over 2 days with 4 cats who don't like car rides and have never lived anywhere else but our house in GA. And an overnight hotel stop.

2013 Dodge Dart fits 4 cat carriers in the backseat

Here are the cats all lined up in the back seat in their cat carriers ( from front: Gomez, Remy, Edgar, and Stella)

Gomez meowed in quiet protest from our house to past Birmingham, Alabama.  This is what he said:

MAOW
(pause)
MAOW
(pause)
MAOW
(pause)

(repeat)

The others meowed periodically just to remind me that they were in the back seat.

Otherwise they were wonderful during the drive through Alabama, Mississippi, corner of Tennessee, and Arkansas.  We stopped for the night near Fort Smith on Arkansas' western border.  5 states done!

After their first elevator ride (!), we set the cats loose in the hotel room and they all hid under the furniture.  After awhile they found their food, water, litter boxes (I bought disposable ones), and began to explore.

Gomez kicked back in the comfy bed

Gomez living it up at the Holiday Inn Express

Remy and Stella exploring the hotel room

After a take-out dinner of fabulous chicken-fried steak and mashed potatoes (yes, I treated good kitties to a taste of mashed potatoes--Gomez loved them), we settled in for some sleep.








At 3:30AM, the cats decided to run off all the reserved energy for the day and woke me up by running around like maniacs, knocking things around, and diving into suitcases ( a Twitter friend of mine compared it to British rock bands of the 1970s trashing hotels LOL). It was the funniest thing ever.  S. slept through it all. I just laughed and laughed.






Day two:  720 more miles to go.
The cats were well-behaved again although I could tell they were tired of being in the car.   We drove across the whole length of Oklahoma.  The cats slept through the Texas panhandle and finally after a 10 hour day, we arrived at our house in Santa Fe.

















The cats were happy to be out of the car and happy to have their cat toys and cat tree and food dishes and a new place to explore.  It wasn't long before they were settled in and made themselves at home.
After a very quick week of unpacking (except for the sewing room), I was flying back to Atlanta to get the house in order.

And that's where I am now--getting the house ready to list and working. S. and the cats are in Santa Fe.  I miss them.

All Packing and No Play....

makes me a very dull person and this a very dull blog.  Also, moving and selling a house is the opposite of fun.

Yes, every moment is being spent packing, sorting, cleaning, and more packing.  The second bedroom in my house has become the box room.  

Some days, I wish I didn't collect things (antiques, vintage dishes and glassware, miscellaneous stuff), had all my books on a tablet, and didn't have quilting as a hobby.... 

but that's not me so I just keep getting more boxes.

Here is another view a couple days later. My fabric is being buried in the back so I'm not tempted to sew...

Yes, those are my vintage snowshoes.  Can't wait to hang them up in New Mexico where they will have a more appropriate context LOL!

Needless to say, I am way behind on visiting and commenting on blogs, have an overflowing email inbox, and have no idea what else is going on in the world.  

This is my first house and at times I'm happy to be starting on a new adventure and a few times, I have shed tears for having to leave my little sanctuary.  S. wisely told me that my memories travel with me and are not left here when I leave.  I have been through a lot in this house.  But then again, this house is 101 years old and my 14 years here is a relatively short period of time. 

 Remy, on the other hand paw, is having the time of his life.

He thinks all the boxes are for him.

"ROOOOOARRR" ----Remy, First of His Name, King of Boxes, Lord of Cat Toys

Hear Ye, Hear Ye!!!!

Photo from Yahoo News

Big huge news at Stella Bella Quilts!

News so big that I needed a town crier.

Good thing Will & Kate had their baby and I was able to borrow this guy ----------------------------->
all the way from London.

Who knew that town criers still had jobs in this economy.

Who knew that town criers apparently belong to every house at Hogwarts (check out all those badges).

Who knew that town criers got to wear such fabulous hats.

I may have missed my calling 'cause I way dig that hat.  But I digress....

BIG NEWS ITEM #1

During our recent trip to OBX, S. proposed to me and I said yes!  Yes, it is true, S. is going to be Mr. Stella Bella Quilts.  Our families and friends are overjoyed as they have been waiting and waiting and waiting for this to happen.  After a decade of togetherness, S. and I are making it legal.  We are going to pass on the pageantry of a royal wedding, however, and are just going to have a civil ceremony at some point. Oh yeah and a town crier with an even bigger hat.

S. is overjoyed with his dowry of fifty-eleventeen UFOs, let me tell you.

The cats already consider him one of their staff and they see no change in the situation.


BIG NEWS ITEM #2

Also during the OBX trip, S. had a phone job interview for his dream job in his dream location and after anxious waiting of approximately eternity, which really ended up being a couple weeks, he was offered and accepted the job....

....in Santa Fe, New Mexico!

Poor dear S. had the most stressful vacation ever but it all turned out wonderful and exciting and exhilarating and fabulous.

And this means we are moving from the Southeast to the Southwest....with four cats.

The cats have not been told about the cross-country car trip nor have they been told about changes to their routine let alone moving to a new house that they have never been to.  Let's keep them oblivious for awhile, shall we.

S. will be moving out there in mid-September and I will be following (with the four cats) after I pack up everything and sell my house.  All fingers and toes and cat paws crossed that I can sell my house easily and successfully in this market. 

I have never been to New Mexico or the Southwest so I checked out every book in our county library system and instead of quilting, I've been reading. And researching online. And thinking of the zillions of details and questions and logistics and everything else possible. I am not thinking about goodbyes or leaving my house that I love so much yet.  Just thinking practical for now.

Does Remy know how adorable he is???

I also started the arduous task of sorting, cleaning, packing, etc. of 14 years worth of stuff in my house.  A Herculean task that I have spent 14 years hoping I would never have to do.

Remy, however, is thrilled to have lots of boxes and paper to play with and has proclaimed himself Box Packing Supervisor in Chief.

I am also lamenting the fact that I inherited my mother's love of collecting antiques and dishes.

All the paper is mine and don't even think about trying to get it away from me.

Schnibble for July's Parade

I was overjoyed that "Lincoln" was chosen as this month's project for Another Year of Schnibbles project because....

I already made mine way back in spring 2010.  I used Moda's "Verna" fabric line by Kate Spain and this started my Kate Spain I-love-all-her-fabric-and-her-cute-kitties fan-girl-ness.

Here is optimistic original post that said I would have it all quilted and bound by the weekend following April 3rd 2010....

April 3, 2010

and here it is today....

Ummmm... not quilted and bound and a rather bad photo since it is overcast & dark in my house today.

I think I remember seeing the backing fabric for this so I need to dig that out and hopefully it won't be another year (let alone three!) that this Schnibble will be done.

You can see all the great Lincoln projects on Sherri and Sinta's blogs.

I can't wait to see what the new project is for August.

Remy Stayed Home

Even though he was all packed up and ready to go (see previous post), Remy and the other three cats stayed home while S. and I went on vacation for a week.

Don't feel bad for the cats.  They had a great cat sitter, who spoils them rotten.  And face it, cats seem like they are on vacation all the time.

An obligatory beach-at-sunset photo.  My iPhone photo doesn't do justice to the amazing colors of the sky.


S.'s extended family rents a beach house every year in Corolla on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
The Outer Banks (often abbreviated as OBX) are small barrier islands off the coast of NC and is a popular tourist destination for this part of the country.  

Siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, parents, nieces, & nephews drive from north and south to play on the beach, swim in the pool, and eat lots and lots of great food.

Beach houses 

We had a great time getting away for some relaxation and a break from work.  We walked the beach in the mornings and after dinner and stayed out of the mid-day sun and the heat. Took quite a few naps. Read books and magazines. Enjoyed porches and hammocks and lazy days.  I missed the cats and got text updates on their latest antics.

My favorite place to while away the afternoon is Island Bookstore in historic Corolla village.  There is nothing better than an indie bookstore, especially when there are no quilt shops anywhere nearby.  

Now it's back to the real world and the cats are the only ones taking naps.

TIme for some sewing too.